got mine love that big version of that9 save your paper that's here we can start shft you guys over a little she likes to hide don't need to be front and center how are you today okay call a meeting to order you ready no more thank you sir C me order V call please miss Pisa present Mr keski here Mr D mayor Morgan here Mrs Jeffrey here Mr kogan here Mrs mcnight here salute the flag i al to the flag of the United States of America America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all the public meeting of B of council B Provence County Union state of New Jersey adequate notice has been given in accordance of P 1975 chapter 231 that annual notice or revision was made in conformance with Section 13 of the ACT I have an appointment for the beautification committee Angela Wilson can I have a motion please I'll second it all in favor no so B okay approval for minutes for March 12 motion please so moved second all in favor yes no so big we have correspondence Board of adjustment um for Brook Road uh helina bwick bambo ordinance uh Union Township I think you were looking at the tree ordinance and everything well the tree ordinance is different than a b ordinance I mean I'm working on tree ordinance I don't know if you want to get into a bambo ordinance they can be very difficult experience with it I know um I can send you a model kind of okay yeah I appreciate that okay thank you and uh Union County Special budget here uh any comments you none we'll go to council business Administration Lisa thank you mayor we have resolution 20 24-11 that is a resolution approving The Proposal from General code Publishers SC for codification and updates to burrow code in the amount not to exceed 18,295 um this was a subject that came up I think a couple weeks ago uh at one of our Council meetings um this is is that me no okay so this this resolution is going to approve the proposal to codify the ordinances in the burough code so that they're all um concise and and in one spot okay Advisory board nine thank you mayor uh resolution 202 24-12 is a resolution authorizing the application by the mental health awareness it's it's advocacy and education actually mental health advocacy and education committee for the the summit Foundation Grant um so we are requesting permission to apply for the grant uh through the summit Foundation um and we're looking to use this um to do our activities for the mental health committee from June of 2024 through May of 2025 um so that would in that would take us through um we're looking to do something in September is for around Suicide Prevention we um and that'll take us through our May mental health um awareness month so more to follow mental health awareness but so we are putting in for this grant um our old Grant had worn out or run out and uh now we're looking to have another way of funding okay community activities Matt thank you Mr Mayor resolution 103 is a salary resolution this resolution is for all of our salaries for our summer help for all of our summer programs okay engineering Construction Alex thank you mayor resolution 2024 104 resolution approving partial payment number one to TNS painting and maintenance in in the amount of 16,500 for the project known as municipal center painting this is approving the first payment of the second and third floors of uh painting of the second and third floors of the municipal center that it was last painted 15 years ago uh I believe they've completed the Construction office the Third Floor conference room nurses office surrounding offices clerk's office kitchen area and both in second and third floor hallways uh resolution 2024 105 resolution improving change order number one to TNS painting and maintenance Inc in the amount of $2,200 for additional Services related the project known as municipal center painting this is a change order that adds wallpaper to the second floor coner conference room that was not part of the original scope resolution resolution approving painting for a payment for FAO Trinity Electric LLC in the amount of $18,500 for the dorso center generator installation project this is the final payment for the installation for the generator at the dorso center uh resolution 2024-25 resolution appointing Carmen torsello as part-time civil engineer and Zoning official uh the Planning and Development Department for the burrow new Prov uh this is appointing Carmen torsell as a part-time civil engineer in the department of Planning and Development effective March 27 2024 hourly rate of $66 per hour not to exceed 24 25 hours per week I'm getting financed I in thank you mayor tonight as uh you know we have our budget presentation thank you everyone for being here for the presentation um first and foremost I would like to thank the B every single person involved in putting together the budget um it is accumulation of an enormous effort um and pull together and put together with careful decision making and attention to details um similar to last year um we have the exact same timing we are presenting today um and then Alex will go into the details of timing but we will uh have the hearing in about a month um I like to look at the Pres in several different parts uh we have an overview of the actual budget process and then we have some of our guiding principles and key takeaways budget details and then we touch on the capital plan so um just uh to talk about the actual annual budget process so the budget process occurs between the months of November and April um and it includes um departments department heads B administrator um and our CFO Jim Tesa um once a draft is developed it is reviewed and adjusted based on meetings with the finance committee um I I took a a page from Lisa's Playbook from last year and she said uh which was perfect and right on the money it's really a year-long process so we have our budget process but we're continually looking at expenses and going through and seeing um you know what can we do better is there any cost savings anywhere else so although it's the the budget process is now um and we're in the uh end of it um it really is a yearlong um process um then we have the operating budget which includes all your expenses for your day-to-day uh yearly expenses such as Personnel costs and revenues Personnel costs facility and operating costs Debt Service um it is primarily funded through property taxes uh licenses charges for services Etc um and Alex will get into that in detail in uh other slides um and then we also have the capital budget which funds major improvements to the burrow and its infrastructure um such as Paving of Roads uh major building projects um and these are resources that last for more than a year um our and our Capital plan is a multi-year plan that we continually look at and review uh as Diane said the logistics with our budget process so there must be 28 days between the budget uh introduction which we're doing today and when the budget can be formally adopted so 28 days uh between uh starting today uh the public hearing and Adoption of the budget will be held on April 30th 2024 uh once that public hearing is closed the governing body can either adopt to introduce budget or amend the budget uh depending on the amendment the budget may not be able to be adopted on the same night there may be a need for further advertisement and additional public hearing uh as of tonight I believe bur that the the the budget will be online available to the public tomorrow morning will be available to the public um um so our budget our annual budget goals and our guiding tenant really is fiscal responsibility sound fiscal planning and management and continue all the practices that uh support our AAA Bond rating um we uh assure adequate funding levels of our Reserve accounts for tax appeals storm recovery and insurance um and then we also consider the burden on the taxpayers uh we want to maximize operational efficiencies review and analyze staffing needs seek shared services whenever possible and wherever possible um for Grants at various levels be mindful of the tax impact on taxpayers which is very important um and we consider that all the time and have to juggle um consider another thing that's very important is to consider what our impact of our current decisions have on future budgets and of course we always want to deliver a very high level of service uh service to our residents so as we said one of our major goals is the AAA Bond rating it's one of our guiding principles so New Providence has received the AAA Bond rating from all three major uh rating agencies Moody standard and pores and Fitch uh there's only a select few municipalities in New Jersey that have a AAA rating from all three rating agencies uh very I believe there's 564 municipalities in the state of New Jersey uh only about 8% of them have just one um one AAA rating we have all three rating agencies as we said and how does that affect us so uh as in this example um if we take a bond out at $25 million uh you can see the total savings between a AAA rate versus a double a rate we'd save um uh true interest cost about a half a perc which equates to about $1.3 million um so this just shows that we meet all of our financial commitments uh uh we use the debt to pay for the long-term capital projects we'll talk about um and of course the cost of this debt is directly related to our ratings so now we get to the actual budget Pro uh the actual budget um property owners and New Providence pay real estate taxes on based upon the assessed value of the property and our burrow collects property tax is for three buckets basically our municipality our local schools and the county and it's important to note that the only budget or the only piece that we the burrow um Council and mayor have control over is a municipality the next one yep um items of note the proposed budget is under the state cap requirements for Appropriations and tax levy it maintains all current programs our state aid increased by $653 or less than 1% at 0.5% um our proposed budget is 2,873 15181 and the increase in Municipal tax is 0.89% or $58 per year on an average household uh we were very aware of the fact that this the school budget is increasing because the third Bond was passed so we tried and worked very hard to have our tax rate under 1% again going back to a previous slide making sure that our services were not cut um we didn't skimp on expenses and we still put ourselves in a good position for future budgets future years okay some of our highlights um continue to deliver a high level of services um two increases in staff which are um very needed is a police officer and our burrow engineer and then the biggest drivers just a quick overview because Alex will go more in detail um we have budget savings due to the switch and dispatch vendors and uh budget savings due to the switch and health benefit vendors um which are offset by Insurance costs negoti contractual costs we U pass contracts last year solid waste recycling cost um Capital Improvement down payments and pfrs and P RS pension costs and Alex will go into detail on some of those so here's the prettiest slide of the show here get a good one it's a big pie chart um so uh biggest drivers as as Diane said the pension uh employee benefits insurance is 18% but our biggest priority has always been Public Safety which is uh 18% of of of the appropriation um when you add up um all the infrastructure related items Public Works garbage uh sewer treatment that equates to about 19% um as Diane said pension 18% I mentioned that earlier um so very little movement between the prior two years uh the percentages kind of remain roughly the same uh but as as we said we we try to manage this extremely tight and very well on the appropriation side on the revenue side uh 61% of our revenues comes from the Municipal Taxes um it's not too far off uh than uh last year uh uh let's see revenues are are roughly uh other revenues just so people understand the 10% that comes from hotel fees parking and shared services um grants kind of move between 2 and 4% every year uh state aid has not changed too much at all uh roughly 5% and the library taxes are 5% but that's just 5% on one side just moves in and out every single year you forgot my favorite which is cat licenses yes sorry yes we actually have a line I for cat licenses it's in the other um so our this I like I really like this slide it it's very clear it's very concise um it's basically the tax breakdown and it shows you the three different buckets broken down even even further so you've got your M Municipal tax which um I'll jump to the library portion we have no control over the library portion that's a number that we're given and I believe the same is with um the open space and then the Municipal p uh Union County also has a small open space um percentage plus the rest of their uh the money that we collect and then the Board of Education which that number has increased a little bit like we said because of the uh the bond that was approved last year so the uh how do we compare to our neighboring communities um we're among the lowest compared uh to our Union uh County peer communities as you could see on this chart this is based on the 2023 Municipal Taxes I think once uh as we said uh 0.89% increase for the upcoming year uh I believe once uh all of our neighboring uh communities post I'm sure will be in the same place if not better uh but one thing to note of course is our Our Garbage Collection is included in our um in our Municipal Taxes where our uh neighboring communities uh have a separate charge for that same with sewers same with sewers I'm sorry yes correct thank you Al okay so then the last piece would be the capital budget and um we have a a separate review team that goes over this but just really quickly um our obviously our capital budget um funds major improvements to burrow facilities and our infrastructure it allows projects to be advertised over their useful lives rather than just being build in one year allows residents us utilizing the project um in future years to pay their fair share share um supports capital projects through multiple funding sources including bonds grants and cash and allows aging infrastructure to be maintained through continually investing in capital projects so it's also a living document we review it it's It's A Five-Year Plan um and you know we look at things constantly so um continuing on the capital project side so the council is committed to remaining fiscally responsible and pursuing projects based on the needs of our community uh to 20124 proposed budget includes a I was going to ask Jim we couldn't find $11 to make that4 million 30,000 so the 2024 proposed budget includes 4 million 29 uh uh 2 29,99 Capital Improvement plan uh the project will be reviewed the projects will be reviewed on a Case by casee basis before making any decision to move forward with funding and completing the project so some of the highlights uh as you guys have heard last council meeting the community pool Bridge is a big project on our radar uh the pickle ball courts that we talked about various Street Paving projects and of course you hear me in the uh in the engine engineering section every every council meeting DPW wastewater treatment improvements uh Capital Improvements that we're making there on a constant basis so that's our presentation um it will be like we said it will be posted on the website tomorrow um we will have a public hearing on April 30th at which time a public hearing happens when the public can ask questions about the budget if you have questions or you know you want to talk to uh Alex myself um not to throw bernardette and Jim under the bus but uh you're always welcome to ask questions um and then then we can have a good discussion I just want to reiterate something you mentioned at the start how this is a living document and it takes all the department heads bernardet and Jim's uh guidance it's my first go around with this and it's not an easy task to complete and I wanted to thank once again everybody all the department heads all the employees and Jim of course for uh put pulling this all together yes it's a great job the the level of detail the meticulousness if that's a word um it's you just made it such an easy process for us answered all of our questions had the answers before we even asked them and really worked to get that our goal of under 1% for the taxpayers so thank you again yeah I think it's some important that everybody knows this starts it it really starts right after uh the budgets uh uh voted on so uh I know everybody looks that day after okay where are we going next year and how we going to save money for next year and you know I know bernardet on it all the time Jim I I know you're on it all the time checking out every single Department all the time where we could save a few bucks here and there during the year so I just want to say thank you not only to the department heads but the employees too yeah you know it goes right down to everybody so thank you okay okay so then that brings us to ordinance 202 24-3 which is calendar calendar year 2024 ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap Bank njsa 4A um 44514 um this is an introduction of ordinance 20243 which um allows allows the municipal budget to exceed 1% of the 2023 budget and establishes a cap bank for funds not appropriated as part of the final budget up to 3.5% resolution 2024 108 is is a resolution approving the introduction of 2024 Municipal operating budget and establishing a hearing date which we obviously just introduced the budget um and our hearing date the budget and tax resolution will be held at the municipal building on April 2 oh sorry um on April 30th at 7:30 at which time and place discussions regarding the budget and tax resolution for the year 2024 may be pres rep resented by taxpayers or other interested persons resolution 20241 z9 is a resolution approving the introduction and establishing downtown improvement district or the Sid the the 20124 budget hearing date so it's just the introduction of the budget resolution 2024-the payment of the attached bills payable list and the amount of $48,600 for the February in March health insurance insurance payments to Horizon healthc care and then 78,000 539,000 to Gold type bus Business Machines for lprs um it's paid with current and capital funds and the last resolution I have is 20241 one1 it is a resolution authorizing emergency temporary appropriation and it's a resolution approving emergency temporary appreciations for the temporary budget uh one thing a lot of people don't know what lprs are they're license plate readers okay so so everybody knows what they are okay Personnel Alex thank you mayor resolution 2024 d112 resolution appointing Katherine verbo as finance office manager for the Bure of New Providence this appointing Katherine verbo as full-time finance officer office manager uh with a yearly salary of $ 68,9 effective April 1st 2024 okay uh we have Public Safety we have a couple uh we have a raffle application Summit speech School ra 1215 and limousine applications Rocky limo and summon Express and all applications were properly prepared and reviewed uh Public Works Alex your buit Diana and I I'm telling you uh need a race Public Works Okay resolution 2024 d113 resolution support ing application submission to Union County infrastructure and Municipal a grant uh program for 2024 this is the submission of Union County infrastructure and Municipal a grant for milling and Paving of the municipal roads uh resolution 20241 one4 resolution approving requisition r24 00623 for I made it wrong before uh Saka Ford of Flemington in amount not to exceed $889,900 for 2024 Ford F 450 pickup truck for the wastewater treatment plant MCC PC contract number 15-c item six 16 this is approving the purchase of a new utility utility vehicle for the wastewater treatment plant this will replace a truck that was purchased in 2012 uh resolution 2024 uh -115 resolution employing summer help in the Bureau of New Providence this is approving rehiring the following people as summer help for the DPW Department effective May 13th at $1750 cents per hour for Ryan glad $17 per hour for Liam Cahill and $17 per hour for Liam hen thank you okay we go to uh you have anything for us uh just um I know if I've spoken to you all about um we're in the process of putting together a Municipal Employees week um I should have a final draft to you guys probably tomorrow or the following day um other than that status quo lot of painting lot of rug lot of carpeting I'll tell you it looks great it really does okay let's go to H Council committee I think discussion items right well there's nothing listed on there okay you want to do discussion that's fine you something I'm good oh anybody okay uh committee reports Public Safety we had uh cookies with the cops and it was very successful and they didn't even sa me a cookie but uh we just did interviews for a new police officer and for some uh S2s and I tell you had some very good candidates it's going to be a tough choice uh making a decision um and that's really all I have for Public Safety okay T in um I really don't have anything other than thank you again for all the work on the budget um that's it Matt operation is normal I would just mention that the other night had the honor along with you mayor and a number of um Council people to attend the uh the dinner dance for the fire department um amazing event um these are these are great folks people um these are people that give themselves tremendously time uh to this community uh you know I can't tell you how grateful I am uh I also think it's very fair to say that if it wasn't for them this budget presentation would look a little bit different tonight you know um the community is very fortunate to have have folks like that so uh thank you to all our our volunteers Fire EMS and everyone else in town I think we'd be remiss that to congratulate you and your boy sced a uh person of year award so thank you thank you for what you do and you're right about the volunteers not only the the fire department but the rescue squad thank you Jess and um they always need volunteers too yeah Shameless plug I uh I can't even imagine what it would cost I've heard round numbers what it would cost if we had to have a a paid department or Squad so this budget you're right would look a lot different a lot different okay uh um okay so for municipal Alliance uh tomorrow night In This Very Room at 6 p.m. there will be a Naran training um at 6 p.m. tomorrow um for those of you who do not know Naran is a drug that is administered to somebody who is actively going through an overdose um unfortunately over the last couple of years we have seen here in New Providence that we are not immune to these situations is it Thursday no tomorrow the 27th today's 26th right yeah nope it's tomorrow tomorrow it's 6 PM um so everybody is welcome to attend there will be a great presentation beforehand um and I believe um a certain number who will be attending will be able to take home Naran kits with you it is something that's very important and again we are not immune to it here in New Providence and it's something that everybody should learn how to do and actually have access to highly recommend uh my next topic is about affordable housing um as we have uh started talking with everybody we want this to be a topic that we continue in discussion that we continuing conversation we want all of our residents to know exactly what is happening as it is happening um and basically you are finding out about things as we find out about them as well since I am not an expert on this by any means we went to our planner and we asked her to put together some bullets so if you will allow me I'm just going to read this for btim I'm not going to put any of my own words into this this is coming right from our planners okay um the bill was signed by by Governor Murphy on March 20th 2024 the Department of community fairs is now responsible for calculating the regional need for each of the six housing regions Union County which is us along with Essex County Mars County and Warren County are in region two as well as each municipality's fair share of the regional obligation this committee the DCA has seven months from the effective date of the legislation to release the calculations so that puts our release date around October 20th of 2024 it is still unknown which data sets the DCA will use for the calculations but the legislation provides the methodology to be used for such calculations there is potential work to be done between now and the October release date but at the very least we we need to wait until the draft of the new state plan is released in April until then our office will continue to review and digest the new methodology we also note that the New Jersey office of planning advocacy will release a draft of the new state development and Redevelopment plan on April 8th Bill s504 declares that its changes are quote made with the intention of furthering consistency with with the state development and Redevelopment plan end quote a cross acceptance process for adoption of the new state plan will begin on its release date of April 8th the cross acceptance plan is intended to be in process for feedback from government entities with the goal of creating a plan that is consistent with County Regional and Municipal planning documents the County planning director and their staff is responsible for acting on behalf half of each municipality within the county to negotiate the state plan it is recommended that once the state plan draft is released the buau review it in light of land use and housing topics and be in contact with the County planning director for next steps so that is our latest update on that um again everything was passed by the assembly Senate and signed by the governor so now we are in a waiting pattern as we have constantly reiterated we all agree that New Jersey is definitely overpriced and nobody is arguing with affordable housing we are just very concerned about what this methodology is going to look like and how it's going to impact us so as soon as anything else comes my way I will present it to you I'm not going to put it in my own words I will give you exact information as it comes about um because I along with everybody else believes that everybody needs to be up to date on what's going on um so that's it for me thanks yeah I think it's uh it's important to know that you know we we get the information just just like everybody else and uh there are a couple towns already looking to litigate a lot of this stuff so um I'm hoping the league of municipalities is going to step in and you know recommend some amendments and and maybe get a year with the legislature in the future okay uh Alex uh just two things one another really big large uh rainstorm last Saturday uh wastewater treatment plant thank you again keeping this uh keep working through those storms it's amazing um and just a reminder tomorrow uh at the high school media center uh Chief hen is having a traffic meeting uh this is regarding the middle school and high school traffic pattern uh uh pattern yeah tomorrow from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the media Center that's all I have actually fits well with the noran come here from 6:00 to 7 and go over to the go right over the library at this High School Lisa um mental health advocacy and education committee met last week we had a a guest um presenting to us Julie jiku who is the president of Nami of Y County Nami is the National Alliance on Mental Health uh she shared with with us some of the resources and programs that Union County Nami is doing um that all you know of Union County residents are able to access and and attend um they you know it's a small organization I thought it was like this this big thing there it's like a handful of people and they do so much it's it's so amazing and all just run on donations and volunteers and volunteers it's an amazing organization but um you know we plan to work with them and and sort of glean some of their the resources that they have some of the info we do have a an updated uh quick reference guide that um Bernard that maybe we could post this uh so this is for 20123 24 it has phone numbers uh for everything you could possibly imagine on here which is amazing uh the rest of the meeting was centered around you know putting together the grant um that that we that n spoke about earlier so hopefully we get that done and underway um the library board met last week as well and um the library director Stacy M she has just been really awesome this this past year uh she put together the year- end annual report that goes to the state and just to give you some statistics of what the library has done this year um has grow it's literally grown almost doubled right um visitors to the library up 25% this year uh to 70,000 people website visits up 85% to almost 100,000 um books borrowed up 146% to 8,50 I mean it just goes on and on ebooks borrowed audio books um digital items that are available a lot of that has to do with joining the main Consortium we have a lot resources available any book that you want is available um so hopefully that's you know driving up some of that some of those statistics but it's really been amaz an amazing year over there okay now we have public comments and we started this last meeting this is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues that are not separate topics scheduled for a public hearing tonight to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers raise to limit their comments to three minutes and may only speak once on any one topic anybody wishing to address Council yes Jim good evening uh Jim Aden 324 Charwood Road uh great job with the budget by the way thanks for that I remember those days very well um I have to say that I was quite disappointed with the news this week uh coming out of Trenton with regards to A4 s50 um I was on the affordable housing committee while I was on Council and we worked through the last round settlement and it was no easy chore um I think mayor we've spent upwards of a half a million dollars on planners to well I mean I had 5 I went through my old files I had 500,000 in Appropriations that we approved while I was on Council um to to handle the settlements and uh you remember how many times we went we had to good on Union County um we settled and then they changed the densities and then we settled and they change the densities um we're three and a half 3.6 square miles of the most beautiful town in New Jersey I have to say I was very fortunate to move here 34 years ago um still living in the same house it's affordable but this kind of stuff goes through affordable housing will not be affordable for folks like me um the who's going to pay for the infrastructure who's going to pay for the additional schools that are necessary I mean I'm looking at Jeff seran estimates you know Jeff from EC consult um anybody want to take a guest on what they think New Providence is going to be given anyone we're supposed to get based on the estimates and the formulas 126 more affordable units which is 20% 80% is 631 and Zoning for another 758 last round we were given 316 it drove a total amount of 1,9 units that we would have to zone for um anybody want to take a guess at the five mile radius of New Providence we all talk about traffic congestion environmental factors anybody want to guess how many units are estimated within a five mile radius of New Providence 4200 4,200 that's what the affordable component is when you put that with a Market unit component of almost 21,000 this proposal this bill is m is we're facing into 25,200 housing units to be zoned within a f mile radius of where we are right now GRL hire estimated 1.7 children per unit in the 2018 settlement this was just to understand what the impact could be potentially and the higher figure the worst case scenario was 2.2 kids per unit anybody want to do the math on how many new school children will be in the area anybody want to do the math on how many new cars will be on the road now I remind everybody we have a traffic congestion problem as it is 287 2478 and then guess everybody has ways and ways takes them through where the swamp New Providence chadam have we ever seen so many cars on the road I know we're doing the best we can to put these these zoning uh proposals near transits uh capable areas okay we maximized everything every senior every rental every Transit credit we could get in the last settlement now there's been some towns that have and again I am a for I am absolutely for affordable housing it's the luxury Market units that I am offended and opposed by because that competes with the cost or the value of my single largest asset which is my home affordable housing becomes unaffordable for those who have it under this current proposal again make no mistake I am not opposed to affordable housing I'm 100 I would like to see Trenton work on a bill that takes the affordable component to 30 40 50% if we're really good to solve the problem it's not by making Builders and developers wealthy this is this has become a big virtue signal if you ask me I'm asking this Council to consider passing a resolution to oppose A40 s50 which copy would you like would you like the one that monville passed or the one that Wayne passed or the one that Summit introduced I'll tell you what give them to bernardet and we can look okay so again I enough's enough here we're this is the the most densely populated state in the country the there are 4,300 abandoned homes that could be re rehabilitated and renovated and auctioned off to those who would qualify 4,300 rather than proposing 25,000 units potentially to be zoned for in a five M Radiance of New Providence I thank you for your time I thank you for your service this is a tough one guys but I think we have to make a statement about oppos opposing A4 s50 thanks very much for let me speak thank you you know I think Jim's you know he's right about nobody's against affordable housing it's the high density component that comes with it and uh you could see what's going on in some of these other communities around us and it's tough yes Kathleen hi Kathleen Dolan 12 Laural Drive um I wanted to ask a question about the tree ordinance um I think um Mr Rizzo talked about this last time and I'm just speaking for myself I'm a member of the Sustainable New Providence committee and I'm wondering if we could have some input into that um obviously we're very interested Ed in Tree Management forestry management and New Providence and it feels like this would be a good opportunity to get some input from people who have a very you know passionate interest in the topic so I was we were kind of surprised to hear that it was being worked on um it feels like we would like to have some collaboration in there in that process well I think the best thing to do is have Mr Rizzo work on it and then you can take a look at it when he's done with with it yeah I'll share it State once I have it just in the last two days been in communication with the Burrow's arborist which I didn't even know existed quite correctly but um so John is he's already working on it himself I assume he works with your committee too I don't I don't know much about him uh but this is his area yeah exactly we we're aware of the arborus but we haven't we haven't met him I think we've been in some of us have been in contact with him in terms of what's going on in the town it just feel like we need to connect some dots concern though is I don't want too many cooks in the kitchen because we are under a time limit so because I I've done this in another town and everybody's got something to say and everybody's got but you know I certainly don't have an issue with your committee taking a look at it okay thank you appreciate that um in terms of the budget um I was wondering if it would be possible Maybe in future and even maybe for the April 30th meeting to share the slides that are being presented with the public they'll be posted tomorrow no okay so I'm talking about the people that came to the meeting or the people that are watching the meeting online were you know trying to scribble notes and trying to read what was on there they always in the context of being able to write down and remember what you were hearing so obviously we'll get access to the slides tomorrow but it would have been nice to have it tonight I don't know if there's a rule against that um if you could make copies of the agenda you can make copies of the slides it has to be it's it's part one of our resolutions so it it can't it can't be shared until we've approved it just like the bill well it's a Shar so I mean you share resolutions pres presenting it and then actual budget presentation so you get it once it's presented that's how it works okay we actually changed this from the previous two from two years ago where we did the uh presentation and did the slideshow when we did the budget we had hearing we did it we put it the the presentation a month early so people have had any questions and could look at it okay so no that definitely is important I think um public input into the budget is is very important um so terms of the April 30th meeting what we will have the budget we'll have the slides from tonight will there be any other documentation provided in advance of April 30th and can we ask questions through the Action Line prior to April 30th about you to ask questions I don't think you have to wait till April 30th right you'll have the budget we can send questions in through look at the budget and you have questions that's the whole concept behind the 30 days okay yeah and that actually will give meaningful input and meaningful answers right okay uh the last question is how do you define peer communities when you talk about new providence's tax rate being second in the line of pure communities how's that defined we use we use Union County right but what is peer like they're on the list oh Union County comes up with peer communities for each town no what they do is our neighboring communities we come up with their what their tax rates are so anybody that's contiguous to New Providence is that what you're considering know a little further can okay all right thank you so much okay okay you're being polite yes Ian alen sponsor 47 Overhill Road um is there a regulation or an ordinance or a law that says that you are required to not present the budget to be proposed at this meeting I mean you said that you're required and every other year that I've been here there's been a document we years ago we used to present the budget when yeah that the slideshow at the last meeting we moved it up to to the the first meeting of the budget so everybody could take a look at the budget and have qu if they have questions they can ask the questions and be educated and informed for for when when uh for the in for the uh voting of the budget well my my question is that councilman Kaminsky said that they're required you're required to approve this process before you before you can release the proposed budget it's a proposed budget it's not no this is our meeting where where these guys worked really hard on the budget up until like yesterday right this presentation was maybe completed this morning right so we introduce it to the public we're not going to send it out to the public until it's completed and at this meeting we introduce it that's the process okay I I don't belor the point um I I want it was I wanted I guess I'm going to snowball on uh Kathleen's comment about um the documents on this on the screen um you know I've been here many times talking about you know my my hearing loss you know I'm really functionally deaf without my hearing aids the the hearing aid technology is just really fantastic so I'm able to function quite well um in most environments there are environments it's very difficult the reason I bring that up is I have I have a new experience um I had uh surgery on my retina on my right retina uh a week ago and my my right eye is you know functionally really not all there um um reading is very difficult and and what have you the Ada as I've pointed out a number of times in terms of accommodating for people with disabilities really doesn't allow for oh we'll do it another time or you can pick it up another time or something like that you as a as a a body having an open meeting need to make it accessible to everyone I guarantee you if you have a hearing if you have a um uh uh visual impairment this evening's presentation was in inaccessible to you totally inaccessible um I I just bring this up because I all I want to do is I've started talking about this in 2018 uh about the hearing loss um I just want to to bring up again that you it's something that you need to be aware of if we're going to be talking about we're some a diverse Community diversity includes udes people with disabilities if the ramp if there was no ramp into this building or if the ramp was damaged people would go crazy because they would see the ramp is damaged it would be repaired immediately that's the attitude you have to have about all disabilities doesn't matter not the ones that you see you don't see that I can't really see out of my eye right eye very well right now you're if I go like this and close the left eye you're all about 10 ft underwater um um you can't see that I that I have a pretty severe hearing loss you don't see those things that ramp that doesn't function you see it or that street light that's out you see it and it gets reported immediately try to put in your mind the things that you don't see as well and think about that when you're when you're putting together presentations and when you're going to have a a meeting that's going to be accommodating people enough said on that um I I um I'd like to say one quick thing about the affordable housing one of the reasons that we're in the situation where we are that um there is the whatever you decide the relationship is 8020 6040 there are people are going to say it's no good you can't do that um if if you do it 6040 or something people are going to complain at 6040 so that that's one thing to say what's important to realize is the reason that we are at this point in 2024 is that the court the Supreme Court of New Jersey ordered that every town in New Jersey needed to begin the process of providing affordable housing to all of their residents or or not if but they needed to provide affordable housing that decision was made in 1975 and what happened was I don't I hate to say towns but well Milburn is fighting it right now um people towns the the the wealthy towns fought it for years and years and years they fought it in the legislature you know this wasn't the Democrats and the Republicans are both responsible for not coming up and agreeing that we need to work positively on the Supreme Court's decision in 1975 the Mount Laurel decision and they fought it until and and there were three more court cases where the Supreme Court Court kept saying do it do it you need to do it until finally in in 2015 they said you're not going to do this we're going to make you do it and that's what they did and everybody is screaming about that now okay I just thank you for your comments Alan the uh I think we know the history of uh how this goes like I've said before we never uh we never shipped our affordable housing out we are considered a good town and I'm proud that we did what we we did in in the in the past years but uh going through through this you know meeting after meeting isn't going to solve the problem quite frankly I believe that the governors and legislators should have pass legisl a decade ago to take care of this problem and I I agree with what you're saying but you know we are where we are and we have to deal with the cards where we're don't so um that's why you're going to see a lot of towns resisting what's going on because quite frankly the infrastructure not only infrastructure but the schools and and and the municipalities can handle that type of population so thank you for your comments tonight let let me just say one final thing I I have three minutes I have said well the liberal I okay I'm trying to pay you a compliment here I know I I I don't need a compliment I and I appreciate you doing it but you know we we've gone through this no okay I I happen to I'm I'm gonna do it anyway and that is that that you you did select perfect properties to be res owned for for the affordable housing they they they definitely meet the criteria and there is a criteria that's set up it's called The Jacobson principles Under The Jacobson rules that are in the that are in the new legislation um but but you essentially did that and and I commend you for that I think that that I wish that more towns didn't go and pick out well let's pick out this farm and reone it that sort of thing told by the special Master what we did in New Providence was the best plan that they've ever seen so you have my vote of approval okay thank you thank you hi and cool 65 Madison Avenue thank you first for all the budget information appreciated um I have a few specific questions about it it sounds though it's better off coming out on April 30th okay so I will bring those in you you you can ask a question right now I mean Jim's here so he would know okay um maybe before that though I just in terms of advertising you mentioned about advertising up there um and I have to say I haven't been downtown recently I don't know if you headed up on that electronic board downtown but I had to look through the agenda wait for the agenda I knew it was about this time to come to this meeting but it's not like on the front of the website unless I'm doing something wrong would it make sense to have something like of this magnitude on the front like the the announcements and also for the next meeting just a suggestion because it talks about advertising I don't know whether I'm missing something or it's advertised somewhere else I think it's posting right it's just posted That's What It Is by law by law we have to advertise it in the newspaper prior to the hearing not prior to the intro which was so today's the introduction right okay but I mean so before the hearing we also have Instagram which a lot of people are Instagram and um Facebook and Facebook and I mean it doesn't it says it's a council meeting it doesn't say it on there but I mean I mean we could amp it up a little bit just so people come out for these things hous we've been trying um okay more specific specifically so the Surplus we didn't really talk about it very much but I always have a lot of questions about that like it seems to me it seems to be growing a bit and I'm not really clear what we're doing with it what's the purpose of it exactly what's our Target where where do we want to be as a percent of everything with of the O overall budget with this Surplus and I know we talked about the AAA Bond rating and for me hearing that we are among a few towns that have all these great ratings it sounds good but on the other hand are other towns making different choices different balances about whether we need to be AAA across all the ratings agencies or maybe we sacrifice a little bit of that maybe that Surplus could go to something else in fact um maybe could it go toward some sort of subsidy for this affordable housing so that we don't have to go 8020 every time you go down a a a rating and correct me if I'm wrong Jim that you you actually when you're paying off a bond it's going to cost you a lot more money I saw that 1.2 million right over the course of 20 years that's exactly which divided over 20 years is like $65,000 that's just one example that's just one example just layering bonds that we have yeah and and on a county level the county just raised their taxes I think correct me if I'm wrong it was like 1.75% and they're growing their Surplus also so it's a very useful tool and we can address that on yeah i' just like to hear more because obviously there's probably some wish list of projects to do and we make a choice that we put something aside for Surplus and are we you know can we hear a little bit about what that balance is and why do we make those choic okay like I said I think this affordable thing if we could you know one of these buildings that slated if we could subsidize that maybe we can get a lot more of the affordable housing right into one of those properties now the Surplus fund is like your right like your emergency fund that you I mean during Ida if we didn't have a surplus fund we would have been up a creek without a paddle so to speak I mean we we dipped into that big time but um you know I mean I'm sure they can touch on it a little bit more what's the amount what's the optimal amount for something like that because I don't know and we're also not the people who are paying for the affordable housing units they're being paid for by the builders right but you can come up with there's there are towns that have purchased properties and had a say in an input into how that you know how much it gets sold for I don't know I mean it's it's complicated I probably it's by understanding it's Federal money um because I because I did because I did I did inquire about that um with the planner recently and it I believe it's Federal money that we would have to access to be able to do that which would not have any impact on the Surplus that's right no no no you can go after that you can get grants some towns have done that and they you know some Builders will work with they'll help you get those grants but I'm also thinking that the Surplus can be part of it if we purchased a property so and had some we touch my I mean Jim could probably talk about the Surplus a little bit more you know at least just mentioned it and a lot of towns May dip into their Surplus for certain things may buy something some equipment or some Capital Improvements that they might use their Surplus for and then they need emergency funds and they don't have them so what do they do they raise taxes right so you'll see some towns tax rates go they may be up 6% one year down 1% the next year we don't do that here one of the things we try to do and you see in our presentation is consistently keep a moderate increase in our taxes right based on all of the things that you see costs that are going up right the insurance costs going up right uh pensions going up uh salaries you know salaries right so so you know the portion of the budget that we talked about tonight is a very small portion of your entire tax bill uh and like we presented tonight and we have everyone here has done this presentation now um is to make sure that that is a consistent moderate increase very hard to do especially when you have expenses going going uh up as as as high as they have been over the last few years so um yeah can we dip into our you know uh you know fund and lower taxes sure we could right if we did that the next year we may have an issue something may happen we have a storm or we have a fire or something that takes out you know some of our infrastructure where where's that money going to come from it's going to come from taxes we're going to have to raise taxes right so we're trying very difficult very hard to manage that difficult equation if you will I think it's uh also important to understand that rating agencies look at stability more than anything else and that's what we've been trying to do we've come up with this plan since 2003 and we've kept the course that's one of the reasons why we're at the triaa bond rating and I know you say it's $65,000 a year it's a lot of money and I think $65,000 is a lot of money a year it's it depends on the scale right yeah but uh the other thing when we have a storm like Ida or Sandy we have to put out money FEMA doesn't pay us for years after we have to get the infrastructure repaired and if we don't have that money do it it can't get repaired we're going to have to go out for for bonds and it's going to increase the uh tax rate so I think it's very it's very prudent that we have the amount of surplus I know they cap Surplus at a what what is it statutorily right for schools it's super sa very yeah but the point is is the reoccurring Surplus because if you don't have reoccurring Surplus to to use each tax is it increasing I have a sense it's like increasing is it just according to inflation or is it noas on our operations from year to year now Point what that number is as a base that's up for Council and the administration to decide but all the factors that fall into that have to do with the ratings it has to do with having enough cash on a monthly basis to pay all the bills because honestly you pay the schools the county but you're collecting taxes so you need some sort of cash on hand to be able to right EXA to be able to pay all these so that's also part of the operational piece yeah so there's a lot of different pieces that have to do with the Surplus numbers and all the reserve numbers which to the point when you have a major storm if you didn't have those funds be hitting Surplus hard which you probably have a tax increase to F here so you know it's a budget plan you just try to the you always looking two years out like when we're doing the budget this year I have eyes on next year because you don't want the spikes you want it FL as flat as possible what do we run between two two and a half and three million in Surplus something like that is that what it is I meanon yeah and that's staying steady because it feels like the numbers that I've seen have climbed CL a little bit in but I could bring a schedule I think if we can just the the presentation right yeah that's all I'm asking is if we make it clear what our Target is why are we doing it that way what choices are we making amazing rating and and I'm sure they can articulate that for you and I'll tell you the other dimension that we haven't talked once about that this budget achieves and all our past budgets achieves as well is not only the fiscal strength and stability that you know the modest tax increases without spikes but ensuring that we're making the Investments necessary to continue to have the quality of life and the capital in infrastructure that we enjoy here um if I'm not mistaken today there were some very big announcements with regard to how desirable our town is and how highly ranked we are in in the state and in this County so you know the having a a strong budgeting process and and having the diligence and the Prudence that this community has had for many years um has served us quite well thank you just to reference that yeah goe that was uh the niche nii or nich report said we're number one town in Union County and number one place to raise your family in Union County so I had I do have one to say 24 Thomas Street so Union County or is going to be having a sweeping reevaluation of property value uh 2025 2026 I believe does that have any impact on the affordable housing or do you you speak about anything I don't believe so I obviously we're planning have to revelt either at the end of this year or or next year I mean obviously it's to like stabilize you know property values because and for everybody be ping paying their fair share I assume that you know I was reading some of the numbers they were I mean I think it's kind of fictitious that 80% is not going to move and maybe 20% will go higher I'm sort of figuring with the amount of like sales that have happened in Union County it's probably going to be upwards of like 60% to 40% stks that what when we we went to uh Tax Court they said Brian Flynn our tax assessor feels that it'll probably half will half will well a third will remain the same a third will go up and a third will go down um you know down well in in in a municipality like ours where we're generating a lot of permits for building those tax assessments are generally correct you know in in places where there's not a lot of construction or people aren't pulling permits your tax assessment kind of gets a little wonky because you're assessed on what the improvements are to your house okay and one other point um 192 units are being built near the awr school um and you know I've read different things about the affordable housing that they're going to that it's going to be included there but no matter how much affordable housing to market rate every single one of them is going to be end up going to awr and so the point of saturation for that school is going to be through the roof and I know that you know the redistrict the redistricting of you know our town is sort of scheduling certain areas to go to saltbrook but if the and I know it's close to you know Transportation it's really close to you know Murray Hill train station but is there a way that uh any affordable housing that can be done sort of in the divisive line where like half would go to Salt bro go to awr the um I say that my daughter's in awr and like you know coming from New York and having like 3040 kids per class is obviously not the optimal well that that's a word of Education question but the uh Jim K yeah um right now we have a demographer looking at that whole situation again um supposed to get back to us in April so I would really highly recommend you watch the bo end with regards to all the new construction I think we reached out to get all numbers we are looking attime thank you thank you thank you I just clar clarify something I don't think you meant to say but uh the there's 192 units 38 of those will be affordable units mixed throughout don't know what percentage because there were certain models that were being thrown around and they were also going to be leaving more space available to develop more space in that area so it's 192 planned now there's no M development allowed in that area and that it's it's zoned for the 192 units that's only the amount of units that could be built on that on that pie I think he's referring to the overlay and uh we had a choice we could overlay it in in a certain area or overlay the whole town we weren't going to Overlay the whole town because you'd have projects going up in your neighborhoods they knock a couple houses down and you'd have projects going in and that's not well we we don't want to destroy neighborhoods existing neighborhood so that's why it was done the way it was and that's why I think the Special M Master said it was the best plan they ever saw so you know I just know from like so I'm from New York you deal in real estate all the time and when new buildings go up you know they sort of they throw on the number 8020 and if they actually do 6040 the developers get a huge tax incentive and they get to sort of like you know wipe some stuff from their valal sheet our ours is 80 8020 so that that that equation is something I believe is what we talked about earlier is something that's going to take seven months to to till we really know what that is okay anyone else wishing to address Council seeing no one I declare the public comments closed and we need a motion for 1 through 18 please so move I'll second call please m bisco i Mr kamsky hi Mr Dano Mrs jofre yes Mr Hogan yes Mrs mcnight yes and I'd like to wish everybody a happy Easter Good Friday and wish our Jewish friends uh they had a happy porum and um just uh just be safe H happy Hing oh and Happy holing a lot a lot of different uh holidays all at once thank you all and um motion for just be safe out there motion for motion forour favor Point move second all in favor no so be it good night for